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Report  of  the  C 
Conf  Pam  #281 

DTT13TS34D 


REPORT 


OF    THK 


COMMITTEE  ON  FOREIGN  RELATIONS. 


The  Committee  on  Foreign  Affixirs,  to  whom  was  referred  certain 
resolutions  relating  to  the  true  policy  of  the  war,  and  recommending 
tD  the  President  the  issuance  of  a  proclamation  touching  tlie  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tril)utaries.  and  the  opening  of 
the  market  of  the  South  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Northwestern 
States,  upon  certain  terras  and  conditions,  have  had  the  same  under 
consideration,  and  now  report  back  said  resolutions,  with  one  or  two 
slight  amendmonts,  and  recommend  that  they  be  adopted.  The  expe- 
diency of  conducting  the  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  with  all 
possible  activity,  and  of  carrying  that  war  into  the  enemy's  country, 
so  soon  as  the  same  shall  be  found  practicable,  is  believed  to  be  now 
universally  admitted  by  all  enlightened  men  who  have  given  their  at- 
tention to  the  subject.  It  is  evident"  that  we  must  rely  alone  upon 
our  own  energies  for  success  in  the  struggle  of  arms  which  i-i  now  in 
p:  ogress.  In  the  present  condition  of  atlairs  it  is  quite  mauifost  that 
in  order  to  bring  thj  sanguinary  struggle  in  which  we  are  en'M'>-el  to 
an  early  termin;ition,  it  will  be  necessary  that  every  portion  of  our 
army  should  be  kept  in  a.  state  of  constant  readiness  for  active  exer- 
tion ;  and  that  no  opportunity  should  be  neglected  of  striking  the 
forces  of  the  enemy,  wherever  to  be  found  upon  Southern  soil,  with 
that  boldness  and  heroic  energy  .vhich  are  so  certain  to  secure  to  our 
arms  the  most  sign  il  success.  It  is  now  efjuilly  n:aiiif,;st  tli  it  the 
enemy  will  never  be  willing  to  desist  from  the  unjust  and  ferocious 
war  wliich  they  are  now  waging,  until  the  evils  and  inioaveniences 
thereof  shall  have  been  brongliL  honu  fully  to  them-ielves.  When  our 
va  iant  and  di.'-ciplincd  armies  (enliaiiceil  in  numbers  and  in  sticno-th,  as 
it  is  hoped  they  will  shortly  be,)  shall  have  once  found  thijjr  w.iy  to 
the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country,  and  have  inflicted  a  just  retalia- 
tion upon  those  who  have  so  ruiliL-ssly  ravaged  our  territori.-s,  pil- 
laged our  towns,  and  desolated  our  homes,  it  is  to  be  reasona'jiy  ex- 


pected  that  even  they  will  at  last  be  able  to  discern  the  rank  injustice 
and  brutal  cruelty  which  they  have  compelled  us  to  experience, 
for  the  perpetration  of  which  tliey  have  not  been  heretofore  subjected 
to  anything  like  ade(iuate  punislmient. 

Your  committee  are  well  satisfied  that  the  issuance  of  such  a  pro- 
clamation by  the  President,  as  that  described  in  the  resolutions  refer- 
red to  them,  at  such  time  as  he  shall  deem  expedient,  couhl  not  but 
be  attended  with  the  most  salutary  effects.  It  is  an  undoubted  fact 
that  the  government  at  Washington,  aided  by  unscrupulous  local  dem- 
agogues in  the  North-western  State?,  has  succeeded  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  deluding  the  people  of  that  region  into  a  general  belief  that, 
should  we  succeed  in  our  struggle  for  independence,  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  Government  and  people  of  the  C(  nfederate  States  to  shut  them 
out  from  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  liver,  and  its  great 
tributaries;  and  though  the  Provisional  Congress  of  these  States  long 
ago  emphaiically  r.cgatived  this  idea,  by  well  known  acts  of  formal  le- 
gislation, yet  your  committee  is  assured  that  the  delusion  on  this  sub- 
ject still  continues  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the  North-west,  and 
that  the  gross  misapprehension  in  regard  to  the  intentions  and  policy 
of  the  Confederate  States  of  America,  thus  engendered  and  kept  in 
existence  by  wicked  and  designing  men,  has  operated  most  effect- 
ively in  prompting  the  people  of  the  Northwestern  States  (so 
closely  connected  with  the  South  heretofore,  both  by  g;'Ographical 
and  political  ties,)  to  contribute  freely  both  in  men  and  money  to  the 
prosecution  of  a  war  which,  if  succ  ssful  on  the  part  of  those  with 
whom  it  has  oiiginated,  would  le  eventually  as  disastrous  in  its 
effects  to  tho  people  of  the  Noithwestein  States  themselves  as  lo  those 
of  the  Confederate  States  of  Ameiica.  It  is  gratifying  to  discover 
that  high-spirited  and  intelligent  public  men  in  several  of  the  North- 
western States  have,  of  late,  become  exceedingly  active  in  their  en- 
dea\ors  to  discourage  and  suppress  the  feiocious  war  spirit  heretofore 
raging  among  their  fellow-citizens,  and  that  their  honest  and  patiiotic 
effojts  have  been  alieady  aiten(led  Avith  the  most  marked  success. 
Suih  a  proclamation  as  that  recommended  in  the  resolutions  referred 
to  this  crmmittee,  it  is  confidently  believed  would  have  a  tendency 
greally  to  strengthen  the  effcrts  of  the  advocates  of  peace  in  the  North- 
wesiein  States,  be  calculated  to  bring  those  States  quickly  into  ami- 
cable lelations  with  the  States  of  the  South,  withdraw  them  ultimately 
altogether  from  their  prCv^ent  injurious  political  connection  with  the 
States  of  the  North  and  East,  with  which  they  have  really  so  little  in 
common,  and  thus  enable  us  to  dictate  the  terms  of  a  just  and  honor- 
able [)eace  from  the  great  commercial  emporiums  of  that  region 
through  \\hose  influence  mainly  has  this  wicked  and  unnatural  war 
been  thus  far  kept  iL  progress. 

All  of  which  is  most  respectfully  submitted. 

11.  S.  FOOTE,  Chairman. 

Re'olvcd,  That  as  tho  deluded  Government  at  Washington  still  ob- 
stinately continues  to  refuse  us  peace,  and  is  waging  a  ferocious  and 
sanguinary  war  upon  our  soil,  it  is  the  evident  policy  of  the  Confed- 


erate  Government  to  invade  the  country  of  the  enemy,  so  soon  as  it 
shall  be  practicable,  with  a  view  to  obtaining  complete  '*  indemnity 
for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future." 

Besnlved,  That  the  President  be  requested,  if  consistent  with  his 
own  views  of  propriety,  at  such  time  as  he  shall  deem  most  appropriate, 
to  address  a  formal  proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Northwest- 
ern States,  based  alike  upon  the  former  legislation  of  Congress  and  the 
existing  state  of  public  sentiment  in  the  Confederate  States  at  this 
moment,  to  guarantee,  in  the  most  effectual  and  satisfactory  mode, 
the  peaceful  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  its  tributaries  in 
favor  of  the  citizens  of  all  said  States,  resident  upon  the  borders  of 
said  rivers,  who  shall  not  be  at  war  at  the  time  with  the  Confederate 
States;  and  it  is  further  requested  of  the  President  that  he  will  also 
make  known  in  said  proclamation  the  willingness  of  the  Government 
and  people  of  the  Confederate  States  to  enter  hereafter  into  a  recipro- 
city commercial  treaty  or  treaties  with  any  one  or  more  of  them  by 
means  of  which  the  market,  of  the  South  shall  be  at  once  opened  to 
them  upon  the  most  liberal  and  equitable  terms. 

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